Yusei Kikuchi — 2026 Season

2026 Season Stats

Pitching stats and MLB-wide rank · 2026 Season

Stat	2026	MLB Rank
ERA	5.81	—
WHIP	1.58	—
W	0	—
L	3	—
K	33	—
IP	31.0	—
SV	0	—
GS	7	—

2026 Season Highlights

As of July 15, Kikuchi remains with the Los Angeles Angels but is currently sidelined on the injured list. He had been making regular starts for the club this season, though he struggled to turn those outings into wins before landing on the IL. After starring as the ace of the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan, he joined the Mariners in 2019 and has since built one of the more accomplished careers among Japanese pitchers in MLB. How he works his way back into the rotation once healthy will be worth watching.

Yusei Kikuchi has built a solid MLB career since debuting with the Mariners in 2019, accumulating 50+ wins as a starter. His powerful fastball and sharp slider anchor a durable repertoire — in 2025 with the Angels, he served as Opening Day starter, made a league-high-tying 33 starts, and earned his second All-Star selection. Now in year two of a three-year deal, Kikuchi remains the anchor of the Angels' rotation in 2026.

1He made a number of starts for the club this season but struggled to convert them into wins before landing on the injured list.
2After starring as the ace of the Saitama Seibu Lions in Japan, he joined the Mariners in 2019 and has since built one of the more accomplished careers among Japanese pitchers in MLB.
3The key storyline going forward is how he works his way back into the rotation and rights his form once healthy.

DETAIL · ANALYSIS

Detailed Analysis

In-depth metrics aggregated from every at-bat and pitch.

Data as of: 2026-07-19

Expand detailed analysis ▾

Recent Form (Last 10 Starts)

Older games on the left, most recent on the right. Color shows how they played.

Best: 6IP+ / ≤1ER · Good: 5IP+ / ≤2ER · OK: 4IP+ / ≤3ER · 4ER · ≥5ER (blowup)

Pitch Arsenal

Current season pitch data by type. Velocity, spin rate, movement, whiff rate, and CSW% at a glance.

Pitch	Usage	Velo (mph)	Spin	H-Mvmt	V-Mvmt	Whiff%	CSW%
Four-Seam Fastball	32.8%	95.5	2,260	+4.5"	+10.0"	12.5%	16.7%
Splitter	22.0%	86.7	1,609	+6.1"	+5.4"	25.9%	25.6%
Slider	19.2%	86.1	2,424	-1.6"	+0.2"	26.7%	35.8%
Cutter	16.6%	90.1	2,323	-0.4"	+4.7"	25.0%	27.7%
Curveball	8.6%	78.6	2,595	-3.6"	-5.4"	25.0%	32.7%
Sinker	0.7%	96.3	2,233	+4.3"	+8.5"	—	0.0%

H-Mvmt/V-Mvmt (inch): movement vs. a spinless ball. + = toward 3B / up, − = toward 1B / down. Whiff% = whiffs / swings, CSW% = (called strikes + whiffs) / pitches.

Handedness & Home/Away Splits

Situational splits for the current season. See strengths and weaknesses by scenario.

vs Handedness

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
vs RHB	.284	.791	2	25	11
vs LHB	.276	.812	1	8	3

Home / Away

Split	OAVG	OOPS	HR	K	BB
Home	.250	.645	0	16	2
Away	.298	.866	3	17	12

Year-over-Year Performance Trend

Career-long performance trends for every key stat. How does this year compare to history?

Season	G	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	BB/9	K
2021	29	157.0	4.41	1.32	9.34	3.55	163
2022	32	100.2	5.19	1.50	11.09	5.19	124
2023	32	167.2	3.86	1.27	9.72	2.58	181
2024	32	175.2	4.05	1.20	10.55	2.25	206
2025	33	178.1	3.99	1.42	8.78	3.73	174
2026Now	7	31.0	5.81	1.58	9.58	4.06	33

Full Game Log (Pitching)

All 7 games of the 2026 season. Showing latest 10; click to expand.

Date	Opp	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ER/9
04/30	@ CWS	2.0	2	0	1	1	0.00
04/25	@ KC	5.0	5	5	2	5	9.00
04/19	vs SD	6.0	4	0	1	8	0.00
04/14	@ NYY	3.1	4	4	4	3	10.80
04/08	vs ATL	5.0	6	4	1	8	7.20
04/02	@ CHC	5.1	6	5	4	5	8.44
03/28	@ HOU	4.1	8	2	1	3	4.15

Year-over-Year (2026 vs 2025)

Green = improvement, red = decline. "—" means no data in the same month last year.

Pitching

	Mar	Apr
ERA	-0.35	+1.82
K	-2	+7
WHIP	+1.25	-0.28

AI · SEASON ANALYSIS

Yusei Kikuchi 2026 Season AI Analysis

Comprehensive 2026 season analysis generated by Claude AI from stats data (as of Jul 20, 2026).

Overview

Through 7 starts and 31 IP, Kikuchi's 5.81 ERA sits well below the MLB average (3.59) and outside the bottom half of starters (P50 3.61), landing closer to replacement-level output than to the P75 mark (2.92). WHIP (1.58) tells the same story, trailing the average (1.19) by a wide margin. The strikeout rate (9.58 K/9) is actually a bright spot, sitting above the league average (8.74) and near the P50-P75 band (8.84-10.16), which points to a run-prevention problem rather than a stuff problem.

Strengths

The swing-and-miss ability remains intact and is arguably his best marker of the season. At 9.58 K/9, he is striking out batters at a higher clip than in 2021, 2023, 2024, or 2025, trailing only his 2022 peak (11.09 K/9). This suggests his raw stuff has not eroded — the 33 strikeouts in 31 IP confirm the swing-and-miss shows up consistently even in a short sample, and it gives him a real path back if the control issues stabilize.

Areas to Improve

Command is the clear outlier versus his own track record and the league. His 4.06 BB/9 is well above the MLB average (2.77) and far outside the better tiers (P75 2.10, P90 1.83), and it is also his highest walk rate across the five seasons listed (2021-2025 ranged roughly 2.7-3.5). That added traffic on the bases is compounding into the elevated WHIP and ERA — the run-prevention numbers look like a byproduct of one specific, identifiable issue rather than broad decline.

Looking Ahead

The gap between his strikeout ability and his walk/ERA numbers suggests volatility rather than a fixed skill decline this early in the sample (31 IP). If the command trends back toward his 2023-2025 range (sub-3.0 BB/9), the ERA and WHIP have room to correct meaningfully given the strikeout foundation is already above average. Continued elevated walk rates over the next several starts would be the more concerning signal to watch, since it would point to a mechanical or health-related issue rather than early-season variance.

AI-generated content (Claude) · Based on stats as of Jul 20, 2026

Detailed Analysis

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Season Analysis

Season Progress

ERA

↓ Lower is better

WHIP

↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Monthly Stats

ERA

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

WHIP

vs MLB Monthly Avg↓ Lower is better

Strikeouts

Wins

Season Analysis

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Splits vs LHP / RHP

Season stats vs right-handed and left-handed batters

vs RHP/RHB

.284OPS .791 / HR 2

vs LHP/LHB

.276OPS .812 / HR 1

Metrics Deep Dive

MLB-wide percentile rank, defensive and pitching metric summaries, pitch-type stats, and batted-ball distribution.

Pitching — MLB-wide Standing

K/9 ranks in the top 37% of MLB. The rest sit closer to league average.

ERA5.81

WHIP1.58

strikeouts33

K/99.58

Bars show percentile rank among MLB-wide qualified players.

PITCHER · FIP

What is Yusei Kikuchi's FIP? 3.68 in 2026

FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) measures a pitcher's true skill using only home runs, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts — outcomes the pitcher controls. By stripping out defense and luck, it tracks real ability more closely than ERA.

Yusei Kikuchi's 2026 FIP is 3.68, rated as "MLB average". That's 0.32 below the MLB average of about 4.00 — better than league-average run prevention.

Compare with other Japanese pitchers in the FIP ranking

Pitch Type K% & BA Against

K% / BA-against / Whiff% by pitch type this season. K% is based on at-bats where each type was the strikeout pitch.

Pitch	Usage	K%	BAA	Whiff%
Four-Seam Fastball	32.8%	20.5%	.441	12.5%
Splitter	22.0%	32.1%	.211	25.9%
Slider	19.2%	22.6%	.450	26.7%
Cutter	16.6%	25.0%	.500	25.0%
Curveball	8.6%	10.0%	.333	25.0%

K%: rate of strikeouts among plate appearances where this pitch type was the final pitch. Whiff%: whiffs per swing. Types with fewer than 10 pitches excluded.

Splits by Batter Handedness

BA / OPS against and WHIP vs right-handed and left-handed batters this season. Spot weaknesses by batter type.

Split	BAA	OPS	WHIP	K	IP
vs RHB	.284	.791	1.61	25	23.2
vs LHB	.276	.812	1.57	8	7.0

Game Log

2026 Season Appearance Log

7 starts · 33 total strikeouts

Season Best K

Sun, Apr 19 vs SD

Season Debut

Sat, Mar 28 @ HOU

4.1IP · 3K

Date	Opp	IP	K	HR	BB	Dec
4/30	@CWS	2.0	1	-	1	-
4/25	@KC	5.0	5	-	2	L
4/19	vsSD	6.0	8	-	1	-
4/14	@NYY	3.1	3	2	4	-
4/8	vsATL	5.0	8	-	1	L
4/2	@CHC	5.1	5	-	4	L
3/28	@HOU	4.1	3	1	1	-